On Saturday night I attended the CD release party of a band, fronted by fellow jazz89 broadcaster, Easy Bill (host of R&B jukebox). The band, Easy Bill and the Big Beat were launching their debut CD - "Midnight Creep" - at The Skylark.

Fearing a repeat of another evening out back in April this year, where everybody but Grainne and I was dressed in R&B period outfits, I wore my antique Daks suit (fine British tailoring, circa 1960), a bold choice of shirt, and my drinking coat. Hell, I was ready for anything.

The Skylark was a pleasant enough place, not too fancy, but not too down-at-heel. It had central bar, á la "Cheers". When I found out that its Guinness at a dollar less than most places in Denver, I decided to play the part of Norm Peterson.

I had been greeted outside the club, by Easy Bill, looking resplendent (and somewhat nervous) in a suit and tie that perfectly matched his band's blues/R&B music.

Much as I'm more a jazz fan than I am a blues fan, I thoroughly enjoyed the band's live performance, much of it featured on their album. All the members of the band performed well, and Bill's singing had just the right tone for songs they played.

In front of the small stage, was a hard-core group of swing dancers, all of whom seemed to have attended the same dance school together. I say this because they all continually swapped (dancing) partners throughout the performance, and all danced with the kind of calculated deliberate nonchalance of people who'd trained really hard to dance in a way that came naturally to their parents when they were teenagers.

On the way out of the club, the swing-dancers, who by this stage, I'd dubbed "The Kids From Georgie Fame", were having a series of team photos taken, outside. The same level of military organisation shown before, was being used to get everybody in the frame.

All in all, a very pleasant night out, great music, superb atmosphere, good crowd of folks, and cheap Guinness.

Of course the cheapness of the Skylark's Guinness was soon forgotten, when I called in at The Hornet, to find that on Saturdays, their Guinness is only $2 a pint (it's usually $4 - $4.50 in Denver). It's amazing how thirsty you can get after watching all that energetic dancing.